The Tunnel [Book Review]

Hello there!

Title: The Tunnel

Author: Helene Louard

Publisher: DreamBig Publishing

Published Date: 19^th August 2016

Rating: 3 Stars

*Thanks to the author for the review copy*

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Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Alexa enters a strange tunnel on a nameless road; and her life changes forever. She is sent to the future, where the earth is ravaged by mutated animals and ruled by the Others: monsters that were once human. 

Before a mutated dog tears her to shreds, she is rescued and taken to Shelter, where the few human survivors remain.

There, she meets two warrior brothers, Micah and Tane. Micah is warm-hearted and flirtatious, while his brother is mysterious and guarded. Despite her better judgment, Alexa is drawn to the dangerous Tane, but she has bigger problems than unrequited emotion.

Soon, she questions how she ended up in the future. Why did the tunnel choose her, and why are the people of Shelter so welcoming? Tane is entrusted with her protection, but even more questions arise as Alexa begins to suspect the Others are out to get her. Alexa could hold the power to save the human race, but first, she must make a devastating choice that will alter the fate of the world.

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Review: The Tunnel was actually a novel I was given to read and review on my channel, but writing written reviews is just something I love doing. So somehow, I’ve ended up writing this as well.

I had my ups and downs when reading this novel. A key element as to why I couldn’t love it further was the writing style. I have to admit that it was pretty juvenile, and it kept the whole novel feeling a little on the “young” side despite the maturity of what was happening at times. So I felt like those two sides of things did not always add up well. And the beginning, the prologue, left me very very confused.

However, we get through that and once the real story started, I actually managed to really enjoy it. When I mention the real story, I mean the part where she is thrown into the future. When she gets to the future, I found the world building to have been done exceptionally well. We get a real feel for the world she is put into, and there are solid explanations which are believable for all the changes that have happened since. Especially for the development of what they call the Others in the novel.

Then we get to the characters. There’s the protagonist, Alexa, who I really liked. I thought she was a very feisty, and jump-in-ask-questions-later kind of person. I thought she handled the transition pretty well (but with drawbacks, so it was still realistic) and I just liked her go-getter kind of attitude. The only thing I didn’t like about her – well, maybe not about her but to do with her – is that she ended up being the damsel in distress a few too many times for me to appreciate how women were being represented. But then again, there are also times where she is saving people, and she has been thrown into this unfamiliar world and doesn’t know how to protect herself. So maybe it’s only fair she ends up in that kind of situation quite a lot. Hmm…

There’s also the two brothers, Micah and Tane. I liked Micah well enough and his kindness, but I practically FELL IN LOVE with Tane. I don’t usually like the indifferent stand-offish kind of characters, but Tane was my exception. I just couldn’t get enough of the scenes which included him. Which thankfully ended up being quite a few. He may have been why I found this book so addicting, and sailed through it.

There was a bit of a love triangle. Only in the beginning of the novel though, because it is a petty kind of one. We all know who she is going to choose, and thankfully the novel doesn’t dwell on it, and the love triangle is gone within the first third of the book. So we can have the super intense, but clean, romance throughout the rest of the novel. Which just so happens to be one of the best parts of the book as well.

The ending was brimming over with suspense and tension! I loved it. There was a key explanation I needed at the ending, which was kind of skipped over and briefly explained later, but I wanted a bit more info!

Also, one plot hole. They have to be in the present to fix the future (this isn’t a spoiler), but the thing is, that some people end up dying in the last fight before they get there. And at the end of the book they mention how they are always thinking about those people who died for the cause… but seeing as they are dying in the future and technically it hasn’t happened yet, if they go back and save the future, aren’t they all alive and well? Shouldn’t they no longer be mourning?

I was a little confused on that aspect of things.

So this review has been the ups and downs of this book. But the short and sweet is that I read it in only a few days and I was so addicted, I wanted to do nothing but read!

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Links: Goodreads and Amazon!

Olivia’s Question: If you got sent to the future, what would be the first thing you wanted to check out or do? First thoughts?

Olivia-Savannah x